A heartstopping story of friendship, thrill-seeking and defying the explosive second novel from the bestselling author of My Absolute DarlingDan and Tamma are two Californian teenagers growing up dirt poor in the shadows of the Joshua Tree National Park, one of the world’s great rock climbing meccas. Their mothers had once been teenage waitresses and best friends until their paths diverged. Now Dan’s mother spends her days locked in her room, her dreams squandered and all her hopes pinned on getting her precociously clever son out of town and away to university.Tamma’s mother holds no such ambition for her mouthy, queer, truant-playing, snaggle-toothed daughter, who everyone but Dan believes to be a troublemaker and no-hoper. But Tamma and Dan are fuelled by dreams of becoming legendary rock climbers, of devoting their lives to summiting the most challenging climbs and defying all the expectations, both good and bad, that others have for them.Climbing at sun-up, on cliff faces that test their bodies to the limit, is where their friendship is forged. It’s also the one thing that gives them hope. But as their final year of high school unfolds and their climbs become ever more dangerous, and their home lives ever more extreme, it’s inevitable that something is going to snap...
My Review:
Dan, I want to be the best trad climber that has ever lived.The sendiest, thirstiest, baddest motherfucker in the history of motherfuckers. I want to be legend. I want to send Cobra. I want to send Belly Full of Bad Berries and Century Crack. I want John Long to write a story about me called "The Snatchiest Bandersnatch That Ever Snatched.' I want Cedar Wright to look directly into the camera and adjust those 'fuck me' glasses of his and say, 'Unsponsored and unknown, this acne-ravaged, emotionally-stunted fry cook has been quietly ticking off some of the hardest and most dangerous trad climbs in the world, I want Andrew Burr to shoot me climbing Primrose Dihedrals with a stogie in my teeth like an even dykier Clint Eastwood, and I want every human being who sees that film to go, 'Holy fuck, is that what the world looks like, when it isn't all strip malls and sadness?' I want them to toss and turn at night, electric with a yearning they forgot was even possible, dreaming of an America that is, just a little bit, still out there. We will show them that there are things yet in this country for which to strive, and there Will be a chance to save this nation before it's all just miles and miles of denny's and walmarts. Do you know what I mean?""Jesus Christ," he said. "You're saying you want to crush so hard you change the world.""Yes! It doesn't look possible. But yes! That's what I want!"
Comments
Post a Comment